A Paralyzed Dog Was Almost Euthanized Before a Medical Student Found a Tiny Tick

Ollie the Shetland sheepdog had been going through a lot. A week after a camping trip, the dog became weak and lethargic, and wouldn't eat unless he was hand-fed. Despite multiple trips to the vet, the otherwise healthy 10-year-old got worse and worse, and became completely paralyzed; he couldn't even eat or go to the bathroom on his own.

"When his mobility was shot and he was paralyzed, it was just weird seeing him just laying there on the floor, knowing he had so much more life in him," Ollie's owner, Falline Fate, told KPTV.

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Ollie's owners made the emotional decision to have him euthanized because he was in so much distress. They took the pup to DoveLewis Animal Hospital in Portland, Oregon for the procedure. Neena Golden, a visiting medical student on externship there, took the time to comfort Ollie and scratched behind his ears. She happened to find an unusual lump behind one ear, and it turned out to be a tick that had lodged itself in Ollie's fur for a long time.

According to a blog post from the veterinary hospital, Ollie was suffering from a rare condition called tick paralysis, in which a certain species of tick gets its saliva into the dog's body, harming its neurological system. Ollie had worn a tick collar during the camping trip, but the tick still managed to lodge itself into his skin. The silver lining of this condition: if you remove the tick, the condition goes away.

Image A and B show the top and bottom view of the bloated tick found on Ollie. Image C is a sample of a regular sized tick.

DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital

So Dr. Adam Stone removed the tick, completely shaved Ollie's body to check for more bugs, and sent him home with his owners. Turnaround was supposed to take a few days, but just 10 hours later, Ollie was up and about, asking his owners to be let out to go to the bathroom. Now, he's doing just fine, and his owners plan on not only using a tick collar, but also giving him tick prevention medicine next time they take him on a trip.

"When we got the call from his owners that Ollie was doing fine, we all high-fived each other," Neena said in the blog post. "That might be the one tick paralysis case I experience in my career. It was exciting that we could help."